Mobile wireless devices, such as mobile wireless phones, have become an important part of modern-day living, because of their ability to provide access to people and information, anytime and anywhere. Among the different types of mobile wireless devices that are currently available, mobile wireless phones in particular have permeated the daily lives of people, regardless of their age and occupation, in developed and developing countries alike. As of 2005, there are nearly two billion mobile wireless phone users, and this number is only like to increase in the future.
The flexibility and accessibility provided by mobile wireless phones has changed the way people expect to be connected to one another. No longer does a person have to worry about missing calls, or be confined to a single location in order to carry on a conversation. On the other hand, callers expect that calling the mobile wireless phone of another person will help in connecting to that person immediately, and tend to prefer if not expect this option.
The flexibility and accessibility provided by mobile wireless devices, such as mobile wireless phones, has been a boon to society to a large extent. However, in the case of person-to-person communications, this accessibility has resulted in an increase in the number of interrupts within people's lives. For instance, it has been found that most people find the use of mobile wireless phones in public places to be annoying. Mobile phone conversations in public have been found to be more distracting than face-to-face conversations, because people pay more attention to mobile wireless phone conversations.
These interruptions have become such an integral part of people's lives that people tend to either overlook them or react by turning off the phone or placing it in vibration mode, but only after the interruption has occurred and the damage has been done. In some situations, the abrupt ringing of a mobile wireless phone is not simply a distraction, however, but could also lead to potentially disastrous consequences. This is especially the case when a mobile wireless phone rings during a time-critical and safety-critical situation, such as when a surgeon is performing an operation within an operation theater in a hospital.
The social disturbance caused by mobile wireless phones has been addressed in several ways. One approach has been to introduce legislation regarding the use of mobile wireless phones, or cellular phones, in public places. Another approach has been to constantly educate people regarding such phone usage, by placing signs that serve as polite reminders. However, these approaches ignore the personal preferences of the mobile wireless phone users themselves, and require the users to change the preference settings on their phones manually.
A more aggressive approach is to use jamming, so that mobile wireless phones will not be able to receive incoming calls within certain environments. However, the problem with this approach is that phone jamming can affect wider areas and frequencies, in addition to those for which they are intended. Phone jamming can thus be disruptive to critical services, such as the communication operations of emergency and rescue workers. Therefore, a “one size fits all” approach may not be useful within all environments. Furthermore, adaptation of the mobile wireless device should consider the environment setting as well as user preferences. For these and other reasons, therefore, there is a need for the present invention.